Not Your Average Flower Prints

I often frequent book fairs in New York looking for old art history books or botany books to remove pages to use as wall art. Among my favorite subjects are old botany prints that were prevalent in the 17th century for the scientific study of plants (and animals) during the age of the scientific revolution. Sidenote: as an Art History major, this time period is one of the most fascinating eras to study because of the grey areas between art and science. Seriously though, how cool would a bunch of these look in a bedroom or study? They're extremely detailed and kind of an interesting twist on the typical flower prints.  Plus they're just so darn pretty!

Alice Bands

Something about short hair and spring makes me think that alice bands are a good idea (or head bands but alice after wonderland and the old country sounds nicer, especially with ribbons). While I'm a big fan of the crazy I'm creepy obsessed with the more mellow sparkly ones of late


This from Swarovski fills me with joy.



From the Conformity Store this is also pretty groovy, I want to wear it to the Piggily Wiggily on my La Jolla Cruiser.


Most of all I want this so if you want to buy me one I will understand. I have been trying to imagine ingenious ways to make something similar and have not yet managed. I think my shiny hair needs shiny things to keep it company.

Mi Fa Sew

This arrived at my house today. It is very simple and very boring but makes lovely curtains and quilted a very nice tea cosy (pictures when I can sort my camera out).

Beautiful Prints: Liberty of London fabrics

My mother regularly scours garage sales, vintage stores, and flea markets regularly for Liberty of London scarves. We cannot drive past one without her recanting the story of how this one time at this one flea market in this one box of this one vendor there was Liberty of London scarf and it became hers for a mere five dollars. I think I'm catching some of that love; it's contagious.  The prints are just so awesome and I love that the Liberty of London fabric line has the same vivid, colorful patterns as the old scarves. For my birthday, a friend of mine gifted me a clutch made out of this gorgeous peacock print fabric from the Shakuyaku store over on etsy. I adore it. Love love love. 

Chi, Plum Sykes and Time : a lament

I am very bored with having long hair. Its a lot of work and I canna be bothered to straighten it or style it so I wear a bun all the time or I wear it in a big poufy ponytail on top of my head. These options are getting lame and old. Plum Sykes, who I simultaniously loathe and love, has an article in the new Vogue (oh how I love you, no loathing at all) about The New Hair Length, which I have been contemplating for sometime. Not really short hair but definately not long, just a shade shorter than soccer mum hair but definately not bob either. In general I am always concerned about being too big for my head or hair and feel like being ten feet tall and a size 324235 means that I have to have long hair. I really really really want this hair cut. I can wear it curly and have quirky short hair a la Andy McDowell only slightly less 1994 or break out the Chi once in a while and look like a big kid (thanks to Aveda relaxer and the greatness of Bumble and Bumble straight cream). Short hair feels much more grown up and much more modern and much more fiscally responsible. Again, everything looks better on Gwyneth Paltrow. Also flat ironing and making self look respectable is always a bit time consuming and with summer coming.... hmm.


The Loved and Loathed Plum and her lovely hair.


And bangs always look so smart too. Is it wrong that I secretly think Kate Moss is very cool looking?
I think it's time for a haircut.

Corkboard and Fabric and Boxes and Things

Some how this weekend between work and watching the Oscars (whee Kate Winslet!) and going to see The International (why is Naomi Watts always put in the most boring clothing possible?) I managed to clean my room. After Lucky posted this I wanted to post pictures of my cork board windows. I have three panel windows across the longer side of my room above my desk and I cut cork tiles to fit between them to I can have my bumph up and still be able to sit looking out the windows. The desk came from my grandmother's childhood home in Gramercy Park. It moved with her to Edinburgh in the thirties when she married Granddad and then after my grandmother died it came back to the US with us. It's my fave.

Also in a fit of organization I painted these boxes with samples from Benjamin Moore (I did two coats but couldn't be bothered with a third so their a bit patchy, I organized all my rubbish in them since I can't really keep all fabric and papers and yarn on my desk. Since I'm staying in the parents guest room while I look for a new job I don't really have much room for storage and so they're just stacked next to the desk but they'll do for now.


The contents of the fabric box.


You can see the curtains I did this weekend behind the knitting basket. They're a bit more purple than they were meant to be. Oi vey. Too bad.

Buy buy buy

While rationally I understand that I don't really need a class room set of 60 papier-mache masks, I really really really want all the crap in the Nasco catalogue that arrived yesterday and I am finally having a look at. Nor do I need Sculpy, (I'm in my twenties, what am I going to do with Sculpy?) or four billion lobster claws or hundred sheets of coloured felt but once when the pool was being repaired at camp so I couldn't teach swimming I made all the costumes for our production of Pocahontas using Nasco products and I too was once four. These things make me think having all this stuff would greatly improve my quality of life. I could make everyone spears of grey felt and necklaces made of these (they're fancy! they're Italian!)!

Vintage Shop Find

I never really fully enjoy vintage stores due to (what I think to be) high prices but I found a lovely one called Be Jewelled in Vermont while I was away last week. The prices are very reasonable and there are cases and cases of beautiful things. I fell in love with a 1920s emerald green flapper necklace but at $150 it was a little out of my price range. The next best thing was this lovely pin, which is much more economical. I'm not really a pin person, but I thought the marble center was unique and just too pretty to pass up. 

Speaking of Coral...

...I like mucho. Etsy coral clutch. Lovely.

Things I Need Right Now: Coral

Lately I want a coral necklace more than anything. To this day, I still regret not buying coral when I was in Naples and I suppose I shall have to return for this purchase alone. In the meantime, however, maybe I'll make a ghetto version temporarily to wear it every day this summer with a breezy white shirt, blue shorts and brown T-strap sandals.

And in my dreams when I'm not 900 pounds and have legs for miles, I will wear this gorgeous Shoshanna dress and never take it off. 

Bamboosa Paloosa

My brother gave me this for Christmas in tan and it might be my new favourite thing. It's made of bamboo, and is very soft and incredibly long (why is it so hard to find long tops) and very comfy. In general I'm a big fan of brothers and soft things.

I Can Also Read

My recent obsession with Marie Antoinette (the movie really - have massive girl crush on Sofia Coppola) has melded with my obsession with tragic biographies and its MARVELOUS! Usually refuse to read any biographies about people before 1875 as a rule and royals are especially awful due to pages about lineage, Lady Antonia Fraser's Marie Antoinette is LOVELY and a very easy read. And makes me feel relatively intelligent. All good things. Off to work - ICK.

Pins, Push

Lookie what I made! I just decoupaged (shocker) images on the back of glass bubbles from a craft store and then epoxied onto flat front pushpins. I KNOW! Due to general camera incompetence you can't really see how cute they turned out - damn you shine. Clipped pictures from the extra wrapping on my copy of Marie Antoinette. Yummer.

Chicken and Potatoes on a Rainy Day

1/2 c. Chunky Salsa
1/4 c. Dijon style mustard
2 tbs fresh lime juice
6 chicken breasts
2 tbs butter
6 tbs plain yoghurt
1 lime, sliced into segments

Melt butter in large skillet over medium heat. Saute chicken, turning frequently, until browned on all sides. Remove to casserole dish, combine with salsa and mustard and lime juice and yoghurt. Cook at 350 for half an hour or until juicy in chicken runs clear. Add boiled new potatoes to sauce for last ten-fifteen minutes of cooking. Serve with lime wedges.

Yum.

Shorts for the Chubby Girl

As I am looking forward to spring and the prospect of visiting Hannah in Mississippi, I have begun to yet again prepare myself for the horror matched only to that of finding a swimsuit: finding shorts. My legs hate shorts. They repel them. Being not 6 feet tall with wide hips, a budunkadunk, and legs much thicker than toothpicks is a equation for disaster in the realm of shorts-dom. Practically every pair I find cut me off unflatteringly or hug me in all the wrong, weird places. Usually I just ignore shorts entirely and wear skirts and dresses all summer, but sometimes those just don't fly. 

                                   

Last summer I lived in shorts that were very similar to these Martin fit shorts from Banana Republic. They were perfect; not to tight, flared out slightly right at the hip, and had a very cute bow. Mine however, were not khaki and not seersucker and now I think how much better my life would have been if they were. 

                          

                         

I have been told by many people (Hannah swears by them) that the J. Crew shorts are universally flattering. The only shorts in the store, however, are the 5'' length and the Bermuda shorts, both of which look horrendous on me. The 5'' are just too short for my legs and the Bermudas are cut just way too slim. I need chubby kid size. Perhaps I will break down and order the 7'' length shorts from the website and hope for the best, because in addition to being a chubby kid, I am also lazy having to return items via mail is a lot of work.

                                       

Perhaps I could also try these shorts from Gap. The flat-front could be flattering and they look like they flare out just a little. 

                                 

Also a contender: these trouser shorts from Brooks Brothers. Although the length is nice, its high waist and overall fit is a little mature for me. Perhaps if I got them in a lovely bright color or seersucker to keep them younger-looking?

                               

If I could fathom spending $198 on shorts, this whole Ralph Lauren outfit would be MINE.

 

                            

                           

Then again, I'd probably be okay with ditching shorts and wearing these all summer instead.

La Jolla Cruiser

Dear La Jolla Cruiser,

You are the cheapest, most beautiful bike named after a town in California ever. I'm so glad we are at last together.

Love,
Hannah

Derelicte and duck boots

I am currently vacationing in the Adirondacks avec ma famille pretty close to the middle of nowhere (actual place). I am stealing internet from a neighbor so hopefully my signal is strong enough to post. It is lovely because I can go outside without any makeup and my hair being a huge mess and generally looking like a homeless person and no one cares. I can even wear my L.L. Bean duck boots which I secretly love but hate to wear in New York because of judging eyes. Nina Garcia suggests in one of her style books to wear duck boots ONLY with matchstick jeans, tucked in, and a crisp white oxford. This is not possible for me, as I am actually the size of a beached whale, and pretty much regard matchstick jeans as Satan in denim form. Anyway, I have gone the way of full-blown chubby-kid-jeans-and-duck-boots-wearing derelicte, since arriving on Saturday and I intend on staying that way until Wednesday. Oh happy redneck day!

Quel Horreur

This weekend a middle aged lady asked me what race I was, I have big hair so I get that a lot in the south where its acceptable to ask questions about one's mother's fidelity. I told her I was Scottish and she beamed at me and said "I knew you weren't white!" hmm... Now back to our regularly scheduled programing.

I am looking for bathing suits. Sister #2 and I are plotting a trashy spring break trip to Florida (her from college, me from post collegiate misery). Red Roof Inn Panama City, here we come! We're bringing a gay friend and a bag of books and I'm not going to buy minors alcohol but what they do while I'm sun bathing is not my problem. This is not a holiday about spas and pamperage, no this is a holiday about Denny's and sand in your shoes and bad tv and cheap sunglasses. In general the gay friend is going to entertain S2 while I lie on the beach and read. For said reading I am going to need a suit. Suit shopping is traumatic because I am twelve feet tall and about a milkshake away from being Aretha Franklin (oh to have a hat like hers). So I will not look like the girl above in the suit above. Can't wear halter tops since tits don't fit in them - no never, they don't. I know, believe me. So the hunt for a suit that makes me lovely and not monsterous is on. This is not a one post issue - no this is a blog in and of itself. If anyone has found one they think isn't traumatizing or has thoughts let me know, I'll buy you a cookie if you find me a swim suit. A chocolate macaroon. I'm serious.



After eating that chocolate macaroon you wouldn't look like the girl above. No. This one is also from Victoria's Secret and is very tempting. And its pink.



On the far cheaper end of the spectrum is this, which could go very Little Children or could go very very homeless. Points for red, subtract for looks a bit cheap.



This is neither red nor cheap but is, as Juicy Couture so often is, expensive and a bit trashy. And a bit fun. Maybe just right for Panama City?




There is always the old standby Land's End. Its only fifty bucks, ruching defines your waist! Fabric provides UPF 50 sun protection! Features twist-back straps that stay in place! A control lining smoothes you front and back! Leg-lengthening "2" leg height!! I'll be twinsies with all the mummie's on the beach but I won't flash anyone. And its available in 'Soft Coral Rose'!! Quel horreur, I'm becoming my mum...

Beads and Shiny Curls

Today I got these a la Swappity Swappity from Kaitlin. My camera is completely rubbish and doesn't really function so the photo is a little swiggily. They are very nice and I like them much, tanks (: She also sent a particularly delicious chocolate bar which seems to be available only in Canada, foiled again. I might have to develop some scheme for smuggling said chocolate bar into Les Etats Unis.

That is all.

I want a Goldman

My dad sent me this New York Times article about the secretive Chicago boutique owner who dresses one M. Obama. I want A Goldman of my own to dress me, or do I want to get to BE Goldman?

Putting the Awesome in Valentine's Day

Lucky at House No. 8 posted the link to these hearts. These are so hot for the dark day of despair which happens to be on Saturday and SHALL NOT BE NAMED.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARY!

Happiest of Loveliest of most Wonderful Birthdays! YAY!

Ten Items or Less

While its 63 in New York today, its 74 here in Canton, which is warm enough for me to go into the bakery and post office in shorts and sneakers and a sweatshirt for my alma mater. Canton, Mississippi is not sure how to deal with me. Canton (like all towns in the Deep South that I have encountered) is very dressed up, very crisp, very dressed. The woman in the bakery asked me if I was okay and the post mistress told me she'd pray for me. I think maybe I should bathe more, and not leave the house with primer on all my digits. In this spirit of spring and new birth and cleanliness I have assembled this new spring wardrobe, which hopefully we stop me from look actually homeless and/or like a construction worker. Because I have vowed to buy a bike, save more money and Be Responsible Grown Up, I have assembled a Spring-Summer wardrobe keeping money in mind and limiting to Ten Items you can live in.


1.These shorts are perfectly wonderful. I have had the same pair for two years and wore them daily, they are now very soft but still look pretty groovy, I think I need another pair or six.

2. Trashy Diva is Candice Gwinn's New Orleans dress line. She started out selling only vintage and slowly added her own '40s and '50s style dresses. They fit gorgeously, no one else has them and if you buy one you are doing your part for New Orleans reconstruction. You and Brad Pitt, working toward a brighter future. And this one is especially hot.

3. Last year I wore these every day and they became repulsive. I wish they hadn't because I love them an unhealthy amount, considering they were $3 in June. I am very young and therefore believe that I can wear flip-flops or sandals every day from March-October, which justifies the expense of these.

4. This is upsettingly pretty. It's on sale and is luminous, could be work all year round with change of accessories, rather like this piece of loveliness which I will stalk until it too goes the way of the sale.

5. I actually found this in my local J Crew the other day even further discounted and its lovely, over dresses or tanks or anything. I am a strong believer in the cardigan, it makes everything cuter, slightly more pulled together and is warm. Its also very pretty in orange.

6. I wear men's oxfords about four days a week; with shorts, skirts, jeans and over my swim suit. Brooks Brothers makes my faves if you don't have a brother or father to klepto them from.

7. Swimsuits are a massive disaster, regardless of who you are. My little sister is nearly six foot and a size two and she still stresses out about them. I, being not 12 feet tall and five hundred pounds find them miserable. Secretly I think that this would make swimsuits less scary but realistically will probably going with this from Lands End because they always fit and are always reasonable and last well.

8. I want this skirt from Celine. It costs nine bagillion dollars (actual price) which doesn't really allow for bike riding or picnicing which is what this skirt would be so very good for. Must keep looking, grr.

9. Wackadoo earrings should be bought for five dollars or less, or made. This is my new feeling in life, earrings should be made or bought from Mississippi Discount Drugs or given. They should be big, probably a little ugly, and fun.

10. Every summer I buy another pair of white linen trousers that end up being a massive bust but hope springs eternal, Ann Taylor has these lovely things. For picnicing (with blanket), for biking, for librarying and entertaining in the back yard these are very summer house. I like them much.

For the New Yawkuh in All of Us

Kitchy. Cute. I'd gladly take my coffee in these.

Italian Wool for the Chubby Girl

Darren Trentacosta is a New Orleans designer who consistently has Just What I Want whenever I drag sisters or friends into the NOLA stores that sell his loveliness. He's nearly impossible to buy online but if you email the website some nice man will email you the name of someone in Philly who can get you a dress if you send her a check, its all very complicated but gratifying because everyone loves fall/spring weight pretty grey wool. And though its technically plus size it starts at 10/12 and is designed for taller girls as well, which is very nice for me.

Spring in New York

It's 63 degrees in New York today. I am going outside with a book and my application essays and probably also the directions for this gorgeous quilt from purlbee.

Get out of my closet Tina Fey!!

Did anyone else notice that my NPR tote bag was on 30 Rock this week? The bag into which Jon Hamm reaches to get the roofies is identical to the one I haul my library books around in. This is the third item of clothing that has appeared in a Tina Fey affiliated film. The scarf she wore in Baby Mama (see above) I bought at the Banana Republic the summer before junior year and the dress worn by her assistant in self same Baby Mama I bought at J. Crew the summer before senior year. While Tina Fey is funny and 30 Rock rocks my socks, I'm not sure she's the celeb I want to have accessories in common with... hmmm.

Sidenote: I would eat Sabor de Soledad if they were real

A Wrapped Mansion and Balloons

I love Lily Allen. I love that she's cheeky, I love that she's rude, I love that she flips off the paparazzi. I love that she's a drunken slag. I love that she performs on British awards shows wearing a gold prom dress while holding a Heineken in one hand and a cigarette in the other. I simply adore her. 

I also adore her music video for her new single The Fear. There's a candy-colored, wrapped-up mansion! And a room full of dancing gift boxes! And pastries! And purple smoke! And thousands of pink and white and light blue and light green and white balloons! And a trailer that I would totally buy and sell ice cream cones out of. Just because it's girly and pretty though, I assure you.